


Not scared of anything

by Resa_Saso



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 03:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Resa_Saso/pseuds/Resa_Saso
Summary: The Master isn't scared of anything.But that really doesn't mean, he can't cling unto the Doctor and shake uncontrollably, sometimes.





	Not scared of anything

The Master wasn’t scared of anything.  
He had died so many times, it had lost its impact. Of course he still was a bit worried about dying for good, but he was the Master and he would control it all, even the day of his death, he was sure of it.  
But, at the end of an unsuccessful day, it was still very annoying to run for one’s life, just because the insufferable arch enemy once again blew up all of your plans.  
Quite literally.  
‘Where are you going?’ he shouted after said insufferable arch enemy, who had just reached the stairs to the roof. ‘The whole bloody building is blowing up and you’re running up to make sightseeing?’  
Not that he cared, really. If the Doctor had the sudden desire to die in his own explosion, he was the last person to stop him.  
He still ran after him, he wasn’t scared of anything, remember? Plus, he really wanted to see the Doctor die. And had no idea how to reach the exit, since his own machines had started to work against him and were blocking their way out, but that was just a really unimportant detail, nothing decision-shaping.   
‘We’re right above the Thames!’ the Doctor shouted back, while taking two steps at a time. He turned back once or twice while climbing up the stairs, seemingly checking if the Master was still behind him. ‘If we manage to jump into the water, we’ll be safe!’  
‘Ah,’ the Master murmured, stepping out onto the roof behind the Doctor, who held the heavy iron door open for him.  
He sighed. So it was arch frenemy today. Which was alright with him, because he really needed the Doctor to find him another way out of the flames.  
The Time Lord, however, had already stepped to the rim of the roof, looking down to the river. It   
wasn’t too high, the Master could still see the river’s dusty, grey waves crashing. He thought about how deadly the silence was underwater, how every sound was muffled until no one would ever dare to try and make one ever again. How water was able to get through everything, every layer of clothes, every material, until it finally embraced you with its cold, wet claws.  
He tried his best to take his eyes off the deadly river, snaking its way through the city, and swallowed, ready to tell the Doctor he wouldn’t jump.   
Fine, he thought. Not scared of anything, but water. He accepted that, water was scary, he wouldn’t jump into scary, it wasn’t going to happen…  
A whisper way too close to his ear startled the dreading Time Lord.   
‘I’m sorry.’   
Damn, did the Doctor know how good his voice sounded like this, how his breath could give him goose bumps?  
‘Sorry? About – ‘  
The hand on his back. He would’ve shaken it up, sooner or later, rather later, if he was being honest, because he had started shaking, but there hadn’t been time for it. With a forceful push, the Doctor made the Master fall off the burning building.  
He screamed, he couldn’t help it. Pictures exploded in his head, while he was falling through the air, memories from another life, buried underneath everything his soul had come up with, buried underneath drum beats and now slowly flowing back to the surface.   
The whole building shattered and exploded the second he hit the water, but the Master didn’t even hear. Cold was embracing him, silence had come, and for the first time he was glad there was noise in his head.   
He tried to scream but instead of sound, there was just water, taking it all, taking his voice, taking his air. He felt dizzy, he kicked around, tried to reach the surface, but wouldn’t move. Flashes of images came to his mind, the feeling of hands holding him down, gloating and laughing whenever they let him come up for air, he could still hear it ringing in his ears.  
And they there were, hands, grabbing him. He struggled and kicked, but he was too weak from the loss of air.  
Suddenly, his head broke out of the water, fresh oxygen filled his lungs, his sight cleared. He coughed out a seemingly never ending amount of water, but someone was holding him steady, dragging him to the next shore, a little, artificial beach underneath a bridge, while he struggled for breath.  
He clung onto the drenched jacket, buried his hurting head on the Doctor’s chest.  
‘Please,’ he tried to whisper, but his lungs wouldn’t carry the words, so he thought them instead. ‘Please get me out.’  
‘I’m trying,’ the Doctor confirmed while walking towards the shore. The water was low enough so he could stand now, but the Master still clung onto his shoulders, didn’t dare to move one inch and the Doctor carried him carefully, not letting go for even one second. From time to time he heard him say something like ‘I’m here’ and ‘Don’t worry, nearly there.’  
The Master’s breathe calmed down a bit. He shook, but didn’t know if it was the cold or the fear. Right now, all he knew was how glad he was the Doctor was here. It would be alright, he would be safe, nothing could happen to him, not ever, not, when the Doctor was there.  
His head hurt. He still hid his face in the other’s drenched clothes, not wanting to see the all surrounding water anymore, so he only noticed they had reached land, when the Doctor tried to lay him into soft sand, gently.  
He flinched and wrapped both arms around the other Time Lord’s neck reluctantly. The Doctor lay down with him, letting him feel the land underneath him.  
‘It’s alright,’ he said soothingly. ‘You did it, you’re safe, it’s alright.’  
They laid there in silence for a while. The Doctor waited for him to calm down and the Master came back to breathe more and more. On the other side of the river they could see the burning remains of their playground.  
Finally, he said, ‘You son of a bitch, you pushed me into the water.’  
The Doctor had the audacity to look apologetic about it. ‘If I hadn’t, you’d be burning along over there,’ he stated, nodding towards the smoking hubris.  
‘Well, I am fuming in any way’, the Master gave back, which his not-so-arch-enemy seemed to find amusing.  
‘If you can make bad puns, I’d say you coped.’  
The Master stared at him serious. ‘You know I’m scared of water.’  
The Doctor nodded. ‘I was there, remember?’  
‘But you’re not as scared of it.’  
He sounded more insulted by that than intended. The Doctor noticed.  
‘I wasn’t the one that nearly drowned, Master.’  
He said his name so rarely, it felt like a little offer of comfort. For once, he didn’t mind and embraced it.  
‘That didn’t make the events less traumatic for you, I’m sure.’  
They looked at each other in silence. They barely ever talked about their childhood. And when they did, they didn’t mention _this_. The day their bully had hold him underwater, again and again, laughing, gloating. The day their bully died by the Doctor’s hands. God, they had sworn to each other, when they hid away the body, to never tell anyone of this and in all their years of battles and broken promises, this was the one they had always kept – They didn’t talk about it, not ever again, not even to each other.  
But to be fair, they barely ever talked to each other these days.  
For a tiny little second, he hated it. For one second, he wanted to hug the Doctor so tight he would break his rips, wanted to thank him for dragging him out of the floods, for simply _acknowledging_ his fears instead of mocking them.  
He let it pass. It wasn’t them anymore, was it?  
The Doctor watched him quietly, with that look in his eyes that seemed to tell him, he was seeing right through him.  
Finally, he sighed. ‘Traumatic, yes, but it left me with a different kind of fear.’  
Fear of yourself, the Master thought silently. Fear of what you can become.  
Funny, how they knew of each other’s worst fears without even talking about them once.  
Funny, how they’d never use these against each other, no matter how serious their battles.  
He smiled and gently nudged the Doctor’s side.  
‘Nah,’ he said, ‘I’m fairly sure you’re not scared of anything.’


End file.
